A part of Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak’s ‘Million Jobs Plan’ which hasn’t been getting much attention in this election campaign is a commitment to introduce something called the ‘Spending Within Our Means Act’. This act would prevent provincial program spending from growing beyond a fixed percentage of the economy. No further details have been offered.

According to the PC ‘Balanced Budget Plan’ — taking into account their proposed spending cuts — program spending as a share of GDP is forecast to fall from 16.8 per cent in 2013-14 to about 14.5 per cent in 2016-17, the year in which the PCs expect to eliminate the deficit. This would be Ontario’s lowest spending level since 2004-05 and, as it’s projected to fall further to 13.7 per cent in 2017-18, would represent a major reduction in the size of the provincial government. Mr. Hudak’s plan is to out-do Mike Harris.